* You may have heard of Camille Jenatzy: At the helm of his La Jamais Contente electric-powered automobile, he set the world land speed record in 1899 and became the first man to break the 60 MPH barrier. He also had a prolific racing career and died under quite unusual circumstances, as we see from Howard Kroplick’s profile on Jenatzy on The Vanderbilt Cup Races blog.

* One of the more aggressive-looking fiberglass-bodied cars was the Kellison, and Geoff Hacker over at Forgotten Fiberglass this week treated us to scans of a Kellison brochure for the J-3 and J-4 from the late 1950s.

* Sad news came to us this week from Allpar, which reported the death of Pete Hagenbuch, a Chrysler engineer, who worked on the 426 Hemi, the B/RB-series big-block V-8s, the LA-series small-block V-8s and the Australian Hemi six-cylinder, and built slot cars – from scratch – in his off time.

* Finally, another automaker employee’s personal project, this one the Saab Facett, which Saab designer Sigvard Sorenson built from one of the six Sonett 1s. IEDEI has the story.

* Estimating the size of the collector car hobby is tricky, at best, but Philip Powell over at Marque1 this week pointed to an article that put the total global size of the hobby at 10 million people, who annually spend $50 billion on goods and services in the hobby.

* Ol’ Man Foster, the Crosleykook, recently came across the above photo of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Motorsports Club on NASA’s website. While we thought it might make for a good street scene image, we’re intrigued by the fact that the JPL had such a club. Does it still exist?

* Finally, while we’re on the topic of unusual one-offs, James Long told us, through our Facebook site, about the custom Jeep he recently found. According to James, Charlie Litton built it in about 1956 to provide backup power for (and presumably transportation to) a mountain cabin. Oh, and Charlie would also use it to provide a jumpstart for his helicopter.

Crosley folks are proud of the fact that their favorite little car was responsible for so many ahead-of-their-time advances. Overhead camshafts in a production engine in 1946. Disc brakes in 1949. The use of the Super Sport name well before Chevrolet. And then there’s the use of the Cobra name. It predated Shelby’s use of the name on his British-American hybrid by more than 15 years, but did the Crosley CoBra directly influence Shelby to call his car the Cobra?

That’s what Dave Anspach, the president of the Crosley American Club would like to know. Specifically, he asked us if there’s any truth to the urban legend among Crosley enthusiasts that Shelby bought the rights to the Cobra name from Crosley for $1. “Since Carroll was in racing in the early ’50s and given the Crosley engine’s success in numerous venues, it is inconceivable that he had never heard of the CoBra engine,” Anspach wrote. “Also, by the time Mr. Shelby went into business, he was, as I recall, a pretty well financed operation. I am sure that any corporate lawyer would have recommended to contact the vestiges of a company that was out of the car business less than the 10-year, 6-month limit of trademark protection.”

Indeed, Carroll Shelby began his racing career in an MG-based special in 1952, right about the same time Crosley was throwing in the towel on the car business. Crosley-engined specials, however, remained in competition for several years afterward, so it’s possible that Shelby would have gridded alongside those cars early on in his career. On the other hand, those Crosley-engined specials would most likely have not run the CoBra engine.

When Crosley re-entered the auto market in 1946, he did so with an innovative overhead-camshaft four-cylinder water-cooled engine originally designed by Lloyd M. Taylor during the war to run generators. Built up from about 125 sheet steel stampings, all copper-brazed in a special furnace, the engine weighed just 14 pounds; in fighting trim, it weighed 59 pounds and put out 26.5 horsepower. Crosley, who was developing his own products for the war effort, learned of the engine and eventually licensed it.

As a generator engine, it worked well. As an automobile engine, the CoBra had its issues. First, it was designed to run at a static speed, not at varying speeds, as demanded in automobile use. Second, it was prone to rust in the water jackets when used with regular water and antifreeze, and prone to damage from overheating; this wasn’t a problem with military mechanics trained to prevent these issues, but became a problem once the engine made it into the general public. By 1949, these issues became large enough for Crosley to redesign the engine in cast iron, replacing the CoBra with the CIBA (Cast-Iron Block Assembly), which would more reliably power Crosleys through the end of production. The CIBA also took to modifications well, leading many to use it in H-Modified racing.

Shelby, meanwhile, became famous as a racer, retired due to health problems, and began casting around for a sports car project he could put his name on. According to Shelby’s own account in The Cobra Story, after lining up a body and chassis from AC and small-block V-8 engines from Ford, “a strange thing happened. One night I had a dream in which I saw the name ‘Cobra’ on the front of the new car. I woke up and jotted the name down on a pad which I kept by my bedside… Next morning, when I looked at the name ‘Cobra,’ I knew it was right.”

Inspiration is difficult to prove or disprove, and while many Cobra enthusiasts repeat the appeared-in-a-dream story without question, others dismiss it as typical Shelby salesmanship snake oil. What followed has some bearing on our question, however. Shelby continues: “We ran into an unexpected problem while getting the paperwork ready to apply for a copyright… It suddenly turned up that, years before, Crosley had built an engine which they had called a ‘Cobra,’ … Fortunately, however, it had passed through nine different companies with the engine, rights, and patents, etc., changing hands each time, and not one of those nine successive firms had ever used the name ‘Cobra.’ It therefore turned out that the name Cobra no longer could be considered a valid trade name insofar as Crosley was concerned, and we were able to copyright it.” Other accounts relate that Ford had its legal department research the issue and give the go-ahead to use the name.

Several other companies did indeed own the rights to the Crosley engine after 1952. General Tire bought the rights in 1952, followed by Fageol in 1955, Crofton in 1959, Homelite in 1961, and Fisher Pierce in 1966. Whether those rights included the CoBra name isn’t known, but none of the companies ended up using it.

We’ll pause for a moment to distinguish between copyright and trademark. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “a trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others,” while “a copyright protects works of authorship, such as writings, music, and works of art that have been tangibly expressed.” So we’re dealing with a trademark here, not a copyright. In the United States, trademark law is covered by the Lanham Act of 1946, which limits trademark terms to 10 years (renewable) and requires that the trademark stay in use to remain valid.

Presuming Crosley trademarked the CoBra name in 1946 and never renewed the trademark (or even had the company renewed the trademark as late as 1949 – the latest it would have used the CoBra name and thus been able to trademark it), Shelby would have certainly been in the clear to call his car the Cobra by 1962, no dollar necessary.

Even had it been necessary to buy the rights to use the Cobra name, who would Shelby have paid? Crosley Motors was a separate entity from the Crosley Corporation (the company that produced radios and Shelvador refrigerators), the latter of which was sold to AVCO (the same company that E.L. Cord once owned) in 1945 and shut down in 1956. As stated before, Homelite didn’t appear to have the rights to the name. That leaves Powel Crosley, who died of a heart attack in March 1961.

Which brings up a related question: Carroll Shelby was very familiar with the auto industry at the time, and the passing of Powel Crosley would not have escaped his attention. Was it Powel Crosley’s death that led Shelby to recall the CoBra name and several months later apply it to his sports car? Only one man knows for sure, and nowadays he’s more concerned with plastering that name on every bit of merchandise possible than with further explaining the origins of the name.

* Thanks to Keith on the Crosley Gang mailing list for forwarding this story along: The Crosley fire truck that once ferried kids around Kiddieland at Eldridge Park in Elmira, New York, has been restored and returned to the park, though now as part of a permanent display.

* And finally, David Greenlees over at The Old Motor took some time out from posting excellent photos of old cars to detail how he machines flywheels for some of the cars he restores, allowing them to use electric starters.

Crosleys were more than just funky little economy cars – plenty of people took them racing in the 1950s as well, and a good portion of the SCCA H-Modified classes were comprised of surprisingly quick Hot Shots and Super Sports and miscellaneous Crosley-based specials. Inevitably, those racers took some inspiration from the Ferraris and other sports cars sharing the track, and at least a few ended up with modifications such as those seen on this 1951 Crosley Super Sports for sale on Hemmings.com. From the seller’s description:

Once you’ve mastered the arts of double clutching and of explaining over and over again what it is, Crosley Hot Shots can be a blast, and they’re guaranteed to attract more attention than most other cars at your neighborhood cruise night. This 1950 Crosley Hot Shot for sale on Hemmings.com looks like it would clean up nicely and require only a few minor repairs. From the seller’s description:

1950 Crosley Hot Shot roadster,as retrieved from lengthy storage. It is all original, super solid and runs great, but would benefit from a little TLC. When is the last time you saw one?

It’s one thing to hold on to any car for 47 years without selling it. It’s another entirely to keep a Shelby Cobra for that long while waves of replicas flooded the streets and then prices for original CSX-numbered cars shoot through the roof. Yet that’s what one Kansas doctor did, and it’s only with his passing that his Cobra will appear at The Branson Auction this weekend in Branson, Missouri.

Ed Johnson bought a Shelby 289 Cobra, CSX2305, at Broadway Ford in Kansas City in 1964 and never let it go. The Johnson County, Kansas, Medical Examiner, Ed Johnson raced, autocrossed and later toured in the Cobra, which will be auctioned including trophies, documents, books, badges and clippings associated with the car. Auction host Jim Cox told us that Johnson was probably a better autocrosser than racer, but he earned trophies in both disciplines.

While the Branson Auction does not normally share estimates for their lots, Cox believes that Doc Johnson’s Cobra should fetch between $450,000 and $600,000, believing it is in “better condition than other 289 Cobras sold the past six to nine months.”

It’s certainly not every day that a one-owner Cobra pops up for sale. And short of Carroll Shelby’s personal cars, this might have been the second-longest held one-owner Cobra, after the one owned by jazz great Herbie Hancock, who used his 260 Cobra as a daily driver from 1963 through 1990.

Another intriguing car to be offered at the annual southwestern Missouri auction is a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, which the auction house bills as one of three numbers-matching Hemi four-speed Daytonas. Considering that those four words in the same auction sentence – Hemi, four-speed, and Daytona – usually cause bidders to get all worked up, this lot promises to draw a lot of attention.

Along with that one-of-three-with-matching-numbers provenance, this car is also claimed to be the most optioned in existence with power windows, power steering, tinted windows, the A34 Super Trac-Pac (which included the super low 4.10 Dana 60 rear differential) and even an 8-track player, among other options.

Branson Auction will send another 1969 Hemi car across the block. This matching-numbers 1969 Plymouth GTX is not only one of 98 four-speed Hemi models, it also has a very interesting race history – and not the typical drag strip kind. Roger Jensen set a class record in the car at 195.86 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Restored in the early 1990s to its original condition, the GTX was recently removed from a museum in California.

Just 59 Hemi Road Runners were produced in 1971 and two are being auctioned at Branson this weekend. One is a numbers matching automatic car that also includes all of its original documentation: the window sticker, original broadcast, purchase contract, warranty papers and even a full ownership history back the original dealership. The auction catalog lists it as the first 1971 Hemi Road Runner produced.

Although not numbers matching, the other 1971 Hemi Road Runner features a correct four-speed transmission and 426 Hemi as it had been delivered from the factory. Its 24,000 miles showing on the odometer are also believed to be correct.

For fans of pre-war muscle, little can top this over-the-top 1931 Marmon Sixteen. Featuring a whopping 491-cubic-inch V-16, this close-coupled sedan is one of 68 known survivors according to the auction house. Featuring a design by Walter Dorwin Teague, Jr, then an MIT student moonlighting for his father’s renowned industrial design studio, the body was manufactured by LeBaron.

If you’d like something a little more obscure, Branson Auctions will have a Peerless GT, the fiberglass-bodied British 2 + 2 built largely around Triumph mechanicals.

For Crosley fans – we know you’re out there – how about a 21-passenger Crosley? Okay, that includes the driver and 20 kids on this hook and ladder “fire truck.” Originally built as an amusement park ride from a converted Crosley truck, this one has been restored.

The great thing about Crosleys – especially the pre-wars – is that if you’re not happy with the power output from the stock engine, pretty much any other engine that’s sucked a gallon of gas will best the stock 12hp Waukesha air-cooled V-twins flat-twins, including some lawnmower engines.

Bernie McLaughlin of Kingston, Massachusetts, had just about that same thought. The 1941 Crosley convertible sedan he found several years ago had been left to rot and Bernie believed he could restore it easily enough. However, when he went to visit another Crosley enthusiast in Connecticut who gave him a ride in a stock pre-war, Bernie soured on the Waukesha engine. “It wouldn’t even make it up a hill,” he said. His search for a replacement engine lasted only until he picked up a Northern Tool catalog and spotted a 670cc GX-series 24hp Honda overhead-valve V-twin, which packed double the output in a similar-sized package.

Fabricating the engine mounts would pose no great difficult to Bernie, but adapting the Honda V-twin to the Crosley three-speed manual transmission proved a little more challenging. It’s not as though anybody makes off-the-shelf adapter plates for that swap. So Bernie started by cutting two pieces of flat 1/2-inch stock, one to bolt to the back of the Honda engine, one to bolt to the front of the Crosley transmission. He then stood the Honda engine on its face and assembled the Crosley clutch and transmission atop the engine; with the two thus aligned, Bernie then welded up a bellhousing to connect the two plates out of 3/16-inch steel.

The rest of the Crosley Bernie left pretty much stock. He had the interior redone in red leather and leatherette, put on a new top and repaired all the rust in the floorpan. The only other major modification to the Crosley is fairly invisible – he replaced the thin chrome-plated bumpers with a pair made out of thicker stainless steel.

We spotted Bernie and his Crosley this past weekend at the 12th annual Flathead Jack’s Gathering of the Faithful hot rod show in Rochester, Massachusetts. Though it wasn’t the loudest, most modified or most powerful hot rod there, it still stood out as one of the most innovative.

About 25 years ago, a fellow Crosley enthusiast brought something unique to Crosley collector and historian Paul Gorrell of Burlington, Iowa: a dealership sign made from the outer four inches of either side of a 1949 Crosley convertible, welded together and shortened.

“It came from down South somewhere, we never found out where,” Paul said. “The guy said to see what I could do with it, and I didn’t want to let him down.”

So sometime in the last quarter-century, Paul naturally had the idea to turn the sign into a functional, rideable scooter. Naturally. The biggest challenge would be to stuff a drivetrain inside, where none had been meant to reside previously. Paul said he cobbled it all together from some Yamaha, Crosley, and Subaru parts – “Whatever could fit in there” – with an engine made “mostly” from a Yamaha and a single cylinder cut out of the middle of a Crosley engine. Coil springs and shock absorbers serve as the suspension, all mounted to one side so the other side would still look mostly like a sign, complete with Crosley hubcaps on the wheels.

Paul said he just put it all together last spring and that it runs well. “I’d go anywhere in it – I’d go 50 miles in it,” he said. “Actually, that’s what I usually put on it when I take it to shows.”

He also said it gets more attention than anything else he typically takes to shows. “I’ve never showed anything that made people’s feet stop walking so much. But I also take two pet chickens to shows with me and let them roost on the steering wheel, so that might be why people like it so much.”

Anybody into Crosleys or H-Modifieds knows the name Jabro. According to Harold Pace and Mark Brinker, writing in Vintage American Road Racing Cars, 1950-1970, St. Louis resident James Broadwell built his first Jabro in the early 1950s using full-size American car parts, but it wasn’t until later in the Fifties that he started to think small. In 1956, Broadwell, president of the Broadwell Distributing Company, bought a 1949 Crosley for its running gear, whittled a wooden model of the final shape he envisioned, then set about building the Jabro Junior, which Robert Hegge wrote about for the May 1958 issue of Mechanix Illustrated.

Broadwell’s choice of chassis material was unique in racing history. He welded up 1-1/4-inch TV antenna mast tubing to make a space-frame chassis. This material was chosen due to low cost, availability, and low carbon content (which simplified welding and reduced cracking). the chassis was patterned after the Jaguar C-type and weighed only 49 pounds bare. Coil springs were chosen for their light weight, and low-pivot-point swing axles were used in front, fitted with Crosley spindles mounted to fabricated kingpins with Chevy ball-joint swivels. Tubular radius rods located the axles.

The Crosley disc brakes were activated by dual master cylinders, so brake bias could be adjusted.

Broadwell built up a hot Crosley engine, based on a “Turbulator” cast-iron block. A forged crank and Stellite exhaust valves (sourced from Thermo King, the company that used modified Crosley engines as power units for its refrigerated trucks) were used. An Iskenderian T-3 cam was good for 8,500 RPM, and the head was carefully ported and polished. A single Amal motorcycle carburetor fed the juice to spark, provided by a Mallory distributor.

They note that the Jabro Junior made for a successful race car, winning trophies in 18 of 20 races entered. Over on RacingSportsCars.com, however, there’s only evidence of Broadwell taking part in six races (at least three of which were in the Junior) from 1956-1958, placing no higher than fourth.

Even if he wasn’t successful on the track, Broadwell was successful in the aftermarket, thanks in part to the above Mechanix Illustrated article. In 1957, he created the Jabro Mk I and the Jabro Mk II, production versions of the Junior that were designed as kits – Broadwell would supply the chassis and body, while the customer would supply the drivetrain and running gear from a Crosley. While the Mk I used a stock Crosley chassis (with solid front axle), the Mk II used swing axles similar to the Junior. A later Mk III used a more advanced design and fewer Crosley parts.

Interestingly, neither Hegge nor Pace and Brinker make direct mention of Ed Alsbury. Writing in the book Road Racing Specials, Barry Heuer noted that Ed and his father, Edgar, wanted to build two Jabros of their own after seeing the Junior. Broadwell then partnered with the Alsburys to put together the production Jabros, welding the frames in the basement of the Alsbury house. Ed Alsbury later went on to develop a mid-engine version of the Jabro.